This volume examines the evolution of higher education opportunities for African Americans in the early and mid-twentieth century. It contributes to understanding how African Americans overcame great odds to obtain advanced education in their own institutions, how they asserted themselves to gain control over those institutions, and how they persisted despite discrimination and intimidation in both northern and southern universities.

Following an introduction by the editors are contributions by Richard M. Breaux, Louis Ray, Lauren Kientz Anderson, Timothy Reese Cain, Linda M. Perkins, and Michael Fultz.

Contributors consider the expansion and elevation of African American higher education. Such progress was made against heavy odds the "separate but equal" policies of the segregated South, less overt but pervasive racist attitudes in the North, and legal obstacles to obtaining equal rights.